<nettime> [Fwd] DOW VACATES LONDON HQ TO AVOID BHOPAL WATER; U.S. FALL PLANS START TAKING SHAPE

[jaromil <jaromil@dyne.org>]

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FYI

- ----- Forwarded message from The Yes Men -----

July 13, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"B'EAU-PAL" WATER SCARES DOW EXECS INTO HIDING
Plans to contribute to climate action in lead-up to Copenhagen 
begin to take shape

	Photos:
	http://www.theyesmen.org/blog/dow-runs-scared-from-water

London - A new, beautifully-designed line of bottled water - this time
not  from the  melting  Alps, nor  from faraway,  clean-water-deprived
Fiji, but  rather from  the contaminated ground  near the site  of the
1984 Bhopal catastrophe - scared Dow Chemical's London management team
into hiding today.

Twenty  Bhopal activists,  including Sathyu  Sarangi of  the Sambhavna
Clinic in  Bhopal, showed up at  Dow headquarters near  London to find
that the entire building had been vacated.

Had  they not  fled, Dow  employees could  have read  on  the bottles'
elegant labels:

	B'eau-Pal: Our Story
	The unique qualities of our  water come from 25 years of slow-
	leaching toxins at the  site of the world's largest industrial
	accident. To this day, Dow Chemical (who bought Union Carbide)
	has refused to  clean up, and whole new  generations have been
	poisoned.      For    more    information,     please    visit
	http://www.bhopal.org.

The launch  of "B'eau-Pal" water came  as Bhopal prepares  to mark the
25th  anniversary of the  Bhopal catastrophe,  and coincides  with the
release  of an  official report  by the  Sambhavna Trust  showing that
local  groundwater, vegetables,  and breast  milk are  contaminated by
toxic  quantities of  nickel,  chromium, mercury,  lead, and  volatile
organic compounds. The report describes  how a majority of children in
one nearby community are  born with serious medical problems traceable
to the contamination.

The  attractive yet  toxic product,  developed by  the  Bhopal Medical
Appeal and  the Yes  Men with pro-bono  help from top  London creative
design firm  Kennedy Monk, highlights Dow's continued  refusal to take
responsibility  for  the  disaster.  (Five  years  ago,  the  Yes  Men
impersonated Dow  Chemical live on BBC World  Television and announced
that after  20 years, the  company was finally  going to clean  up its
mess  in Bhopal.  That  hoax, which  temporarily  knocked two  billion
dollars off Dow's share price, is featured in the Yes Men's new movie,
The Yes Men Fix The World, which opens in UK cinemas on August 11.)

Though Dow  has consistently refused to  clean up the  mess in Bhopal,
they have  taken numerous steps to  clean up their image.  In a recent
press release,  for example, Andrew  Liveris, Dow's Chairman  and CEO,
noted that "lack of clean water is the single largest cause of disease
in the world and more than 4,500 children die each day because of it."
He went  on to assert that  "Dow is committed to  creating safer, more
sustainable water supplies for communities around the world."

The  Yes Men  met Liveris'  attempt to  greenwash  Dow's environmental
record with a challenge.

"Since Liveris earns  $16,182,544 per year, he could  give each of the
children who die worldwide for lack  of clean water $10 per day to buy
Evian, Fiji Water, or Perrier," said Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men. "Or,
for vastly less money, he could build them clean-water pipelines, like
the ones that Bhopal so badly needs."

Dow's  greenwashing comes  while Bhopal  is experiencing  an extremely
rare drought

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/12/india-water-supply-bhopal

just three years  after facing its greatest floods  ever. "Even though
people are  already dying  by the hundreds  of thousands, and  we know
that climate  change will kill many  more, companies like  Dow are not
being forced  to cut back  on emissions," said the  Sambhavna Clinic's
Sathyu Sarangi. "Bhopal should be a  lesson to the world - one we must
learn before it's too late for all of us."

The Yes  Men have  elaborate plans to  contribute to the  movement for
meaningful action on climate  change, beginning in early September and
culminating at the December climate talks in Copenhagen. To contribute
financially  to these  efforts  (which  of course  we  can't tell  you
about), please visit  http://theyesmen.org/donate/now. And if you live
in New  York and know how to  sew, swim, get arrested,  or pretty much
anything else, please write to us.

  * B'eau-Pal water: http://www.bhopalwater.com
  * Information on Bhopal water study:
		Bhopal Medical Appeal
		Contact: Colin Toogood 
		colintoogood@bhopal.org
		T: +44 7798 845074
		http://www.bhopal.org/
  * The Yes Men in the UK:
		Contact: Mike Bonanno
		T: +44 7940739950
		E: mike@theyesmen.org
		http://www.theyesmen.org/
  * August 11 UK release of The Yes Men Fix the World:
		McAinsh Consulting
		Ian Thomson
			T: +44 7909 685077
			E: ian@mcainshconsulting.com
		Isabelle Knight
			T: +44 7717 152006
			E: isabelle@mcainshconsulting.com 

        The  Yes Men  Fix The  World will  be shown  across the  UK in
        participating cinemas on Tuesday,  11 August, via a nationwide
        satellite link-up. Directed by The Yes Men (Andy Bichlbaum and
        Mike Bonanno) in collaboration  with Bowling for Columbine and
        Fahrenheit 9/11  editor Kurt Engfehr, who  co-directs, The Yes
        Men Fix The World leads us through the daring political pranks
        of two  gonzo activists as they  take on the  fake identity of
        corporate  executives  in  a   bid  to  highlight  the  brutal
        selfishness  of  some of  the  world?s biggest  multi-national
        corporations.   The film received  the Berlin  Film Festival's
        prestigious     Audience    Award    earlier     this    year.
        http://www.theyesmenfixtheworld.com/


- ----- End forwarded message -----



- -- 

jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org

GPG: 779F E8B5 47C7 3A89 4112  64D0 7B64 3184 B534 0B5E

  Nowadays  only  soubrettes, body  builders,  media  owners and  "the
  richest bozo  in the  pond" tend  to be elected  by a  population of
  zombified slaves happy to run inside their guinea pig wheels Fravia,
  April 2009, http://fravia.com/swansong.htm



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